- When you think Connecticut, you don't think, oh big, and bad, and scary.

Some people may think pizza, some people may think beaches.

Some people just might think, "Oh, where is that?"

My team and I, we're bringing eyes and we're bringing representation to the state of Connecticut.

So it's a little tricky and it's a little buggy when things that are doing really good at our high school don't get the representation that, like, I feel like we deserve.

We've been back-to-back champions and we've been dominating this culinary thing for a while now.

(music) Nine minutes left, nine minutes left.

I'm the manager of the culinary team.

I'm not gonna lie, I was stressing about our state competition because if we didn't pass that, then we couldn't move on to nationals.

- I grew up in a family that loves to cook.

My mom works a lot, so she can't really teach me.

But I would try.

I make the scallops for the appetizer.

I really like the smell when it cooks.

It smells so good.

- I really love cooking.

It calms me down.

It's like a therapy for me.

- I really love it.

I love doing it.

It's a lot, but I try to, like, dedicate most of my time to this.

I treat this just like a sport, just like my chef says.

He always says, "Practice on time.

Once you're here, bring your A game, practice how you play."

- I've been doing this competition for about 10 years now.

I went in knowing nothing (chuckling) about this, about this ProStart.

In a few months, my kids was in the first, my first competition ever.

Yes, I placed second, but I didn't know what to expect.

The dishes that I was cooking back then, they seem very simple.

You know, like making a burger.

And now, you know, I see what it take to be able to compete at a state level and even at a national level.

Getting tired?

- Yeah.

- Oh.

Tell your mom to buy you heavy cream for the next every day this week to try it.

Every day.

Look at this.

This is what you need.

You see those?

These what the judges want.

So you give those to the judges.

I got into cooking, you know, when I was a kid because my mom was a single parent.

My mom had to take care of, you know, the six of us.

You know, sometimes she was working double jobs.

When she come home in the afternoon, and I come home from school, I used to go right into the kitchen with her.

You know, and then she always used to tell me that, "If you know how to cook, okay, you're not gonna need to depend on anyone."

Four more practice, four more.

Everything came out really, really good.

The pea pods, like I was telling you.

the snap peas, when it's like this, if you're missing, like, a couple of the pods, you could always take them and just drop them in.

Okay, because right now that's what actually finish off your plate.

Okay?

I understand if you don't want to go to culinary school, I understand.

But if you have the passion for cooking, this is the place for you.

- At Nafas Kitchen, we always ensure that our menu, service and community outreach provides our customers with an educational, authentic, and intimate experience of West Asian culture.

We hope you join us as we become one around the table.

- No, no.

- Does it not?

- That's kind of a lot.

- No.

I don't like this usage of which, 'cause it kind of cuts up the sentence.

So the idea is we get up there, we present various aspects of our business.

We talk about the concept of the business, we talk about how we would market it, we talk about the actual menu, the actual food we're serving.

Imagine "Shark Tank," except the judges don't, they don't give us offers at the end.

They give us scores.

I'm Adam Dahleh Sharqawe, and I'm a junior at Wilbur Cross High School.

I'm a Palestinian immigrant.

I was born in Nazareth.

And this year the team was focusing on West Asian cuisine.

It was significant to me specifically to get to not only express my culture, put that forward, but also knowing that I'm putting it forward in the best way that I can.

The name Nafas means breath.

And part of that is also the word Nafas comes from the word nafs, which means self or spirit because we want people to connect with the spirit of the restaurant.

So it's a mix of those two.

- But it's also to create kind of a safe haven for the refugees that we employ through the- - But that's not the name.

- Refugee Employment Program.

It's what I say in one of my scripts.

It's part of the reason why we chose the name, yeah.

- Is it?

- Yes!

- Oh, okay.

- It's how we explain it.

- For or a school that is a...

It's an urban school, it's a metropolitan school.

And the city is New Haven.

It's the biggest high school in the city, and there's not really a view that there's anything above average happening in this school.

Really the only attention we tend to get is whenever we have a supreme student athlete that comes by.

So to have this program, and to have Wilbur Cross be as successful as they are, it kind of turns that image on its head.

It's really important that a lot of the students at the school know they have something to be proud of in this school and they have something to show off.

- It's always hit and miss, especially on a Monday morning, you know, coming off of a weekend.

You never know what they're gonna have in the grocery store.

So you just gotta cross your fingers and hope that they got the ingredients that you need.

It's always, you know, a little challenge, you know, when the food is not coming to us, that we have to go and purchase the food and then try to rush back to school to teach our class.

I'll take that one.

And then what about the one you just, you had in your... - This one?

- No, the other one.

No, nope, the one up top.

Yeah.

Toughest part is try to get them to be exact, five ounces each.

That's the toughest part.

We go up against schools that have the money.

Some of them is tech schools, some of them is focused on that trade.

We are a comprehensive high school, so these students take culinary as elective.

You know, a lot of those schools may have the financial budget.

We don't.

- [Student] There's ice cream!

There's ice cream!

- We're not, like, the most funded high school.

We'll try to, like, make food here at Cross and, like, sell it to students, faculty.

- [Student] 14, 16.

- We got ones, we got quarters, we got... $5 bills, we got $10 bills.

We got $20 bills sometimes.

Some people really give us $20 bills and then we have to break it.

Sometimes $50.

- Can't really go wrong with ice cream sandwiches.

They're only, like, $2.00.

And we're in a school so everyone's always hungry all the time.

- You know, I cannot go out there and say, "Okay, if you want to be in this program, you have to buy your own jackets.

You have to buy your own shoes."

Because some of these family don't have it.

A lot of my students realize that we can't take practice lightly because we cannot say, "Oh, you know something?

Oh, we gonna do it tomorrow."

We cannot do that.

We take practice, like, it's the last time you're gonna be able to cook.

Let's try this.

This is what's down in Washington.

So we have to change on our list to this one, the micro rainbow mix.

- Okay.

- So we have to- - [Antonio] Is that the one, like, that's the same as ours?

- That's the one that I picked up today and they call it a citrus rainbow mix.

- [Antonio] Okay.

- Just picture yourself 16, 17, 18-year-old, up here with everybody's watching them and they're cooking, they're cooking like this.

Then you'll have the same thing with the management team.

They're presenting a concept that, like, they've been working on for over a year now, and to top judges in the country.

You know, like, I already told them, they're already winners.

So it doesn't matter what happen down at the nationals.

All that I want from you is that you could go down there, have fun and compete.

(upbeat music) - It's a very emotional ride for me personally because I'm dedicating so much of my time and my life to this that I just want to do my best at it.

Like, I'm a senior.

This is my last shot to place, you know?

- I'm excited.

I'm definitely excited.

I'm a little nervous 'cause I've never been to nationals and I think what my teammates tell me, like, it's big, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of noise.

- We have to be able to speak up more with each other.

We have to focus.

We can't just relax.

You know, we're gonna have fun.

But when the competition day comes, we wanna be ready.

- Each season, one of our four cooks will develop a few menu items that are deeply connected to their home region and story.

The QR code, which can be found at the bottom right hand corner of our menus can be scanned to directly connect our customers to the inclusive community at Nafas, our digital email newsletter.

- If you go in, right?

If Charlotte is presenting now, and then you go after Charlotte, Adam have a mic already, he should just pass it to you.

It's just like when, Charlotte will step back and then you're gonna have it and you just give it to Adam because you know that he's the one, yeah.

- And then you can just go like this.

There's a lot of stress that comes with it.

I'm someone who gets impacted by stress.

And so when it comes down to, like, the final week of approaching a competition, or the competition day in general, I know that I have to manage the stress levels and how I'm dealing with that.

I always try to make sure that I pull it together because I know how, like, hard my team worked on it.

- Good.

Good.

I think right now I probably am more nervous than the kids.

A lot of stuff is out of my control.

- I believe in my team, I believe in our menu.

I believe our menu this year will blow the judges away, and it'll blow it straight outta the park.

As long as we stay focused and stay on top of our stuff, there's no doubt in my mind we won't walk that stage.

- The plates look fantastic.

- Yeah, they look- - They look very, very clean.

- Dessert is great, yeah, everything.

- Yeah, so.

- The cooking of the beef look perfect.

- Yeah.

Hear that Daisy?

Yeah, that's a good color.

This is all the hard work right here.

This is making all these ice cream sandwiches.

Now you see why it's paying off.

(jazzy music) - Wait, they said that we could sit like that?

- [Student] I didn't touch it.

(jazzy music continues) - I use two ounces.

- That's 32 ounces.

This is a 32 ounces.

No, 16; this is 16.

You use five, you use two ounces (jazzy music continues) (audience cheering) - You represent the very best of our 165,000 ProStart students from 1,800 high schools all around the country.

And you made it here.

(audience cheering) (jazzy music continues) - Remember, look to the person next to you.

Communicate with them, talk to them.

Okay?

And then if you know that your nerves is getting to you, take that quick step back, breathe, and then you go back.

Okay?

That's what you do.

If a judge is talking to you and you have your knife in your hand, make sure you're not cutting.

You stop for a second, you look up, talk to him.

Look at him right in his face, and then you go back.

Okay?

This is our last stop.

And you know something?

Let's show these big schools what we have and who we are.

Okay?

Let's do that.

All right, come on.

(orchestral music) - I'm looking for the great states of Connecticut and South Dakota.

- Yeah!

- Let's go.

Come on, you ready?

You guys ready?

- Yes, Chef.

- All right, guys, have fun!

- Bye, Chef.

See ya on the other side.

- Bye, Chef.

- [Bystander] Let's go, Jersey, stay strong!

- What's the general vibe?

Like, I think there's a lot of excitement, a little bit of nerves.

- Competition.

- Yeah, like, you know, you're preparing for that competition.

So it's a little bit of both.

- Suspense.

- It's a huge excitement.

We made it this far.

We, you know, you've already won that kind of thing.

But the thoughts that, like, run through their head when you're preparing for competition.

I know I myself get it too and I'm not even presenting, so.

- This is their mise-en-place section.

So they have 20 minutes to set up their station.

They can measure dry ingredients, but they can't begin cooking.

They have 20 minutes to do that, and then they'll have an hour to start cooking and finish their three dishes.

- [Interviewer] What's the hardest part about this?

- Just knowing that you cannot have eye contact with the student and knowing that you cannot say anything to them.

(orchestral music) - [Charlotte] Right side up a little higher.

- [Announcer] Judges, the next round of the competition begins now.

- As-Salaam-Alaikum.

My name is Adam.

- My name is Paulette.

- My name is Charlotte, and we are- - [All] Nafas Kitchen.

- Nafas Kitchen is a cause-casual West Asian restaurant located in downtown ProStartville.

It is dedicated to providing... (orchestral music) - [Student] No, water's not boiling.

- There's 11 cuts in the curriculum and they have to select at least two of them to show the judges how they're using them in the dishes.

So we have here a batonnet, I believe.

I'm not a culinary person (laughing).

[Judge] To know what you can do sometimes you have to know what you cannot do.

So what won't you do on social media?

- The raccoons jump out of the dumpster and runs into your kitchen, into your dining room, right as you're getting ready to open at 11:00 AM.

What do you do?

- What are you going to bring to the festival besides your food?

- We would bring our dips because we can prepare them before we go as well as our pita bread for the same reason.

We could prepare it before we go to the event.

- To answer your question, we would... Other than food, we would bring our pop-up kitchen kit, which is- - Right.

We have the brand new tent you can see up there.

We have two tables, we have... - 45 flat, 45 flat okay?

- Chris you need the lid?

- Can you center this for me?

Perfect.

- I'm also going to add the greens right after.

- So just the combination of all those flavors, and being a stew, it's really good for the winters.

I really like it.

- [Judge] Now how do you come up with the name Nafas?

- So we were looking for just something that kind of represented what we wanted.

Not only our customers, but our staff and our employees to feel, because we wanted to create this community throughout Nafas Kitchen.

And so we were digging into Arabic terms or words that could mean kind of creating a safe haven.

And we found Nafas.

- Thank you very much.

- Good job.

(judges applauding) - All right, Chris is plating, be careful.

Everyone's plating, okay?

Be careful.

- 4:30, okay, 4:30.

- [Judge] 20 seconds!

-20 seconds!

- Coming through.

You're good.

- Give me one second.

- [Judge] 10 seconds!

- 10 seconds!

- [Judge] Done, hands up!

(all cheering) - Grab your menu, grab your menu!

(orchestral music) (Chef exhales) - What do you think?

- Good, good.

Yeah, the plates was a little small, but good, good.

We work with what we have.

- Yay!

I'm so hungry.

- You know, lots of the feedback was very good.

Very positive feedback.

You know, we're not going to get the result until tomorrow night.

But it was very, very positive.

It was a lot of positive in there.

There's nothing, you know these...

If you look at these students and they're not gonna have their heads down.

They're gonna keep their heads up because they know that they put their best foot forward.

- We got told that we were really good.

So by all the judges, we got told that we were really good and that we were really strong.

And then we had, like, little bits and, like, bobs that we had to change.

We got told to slow down a little bit when we were talking, which I admit, yeah, we talk pretty fast the three of us.

- They really liked the scallops.

And they said sanitation was good.

Like we were really, that was good.

They liked the beef, I guess.

- We didn't really get that much feedback except for preference feedback, which doesn't really affect us I believe.

But one of them was how our beef was prepared.

It was medium rare, more on the rare side.

But we got a really, really big piece of beef.

So it wasn't too bad though.

It was still edible so the judges could all try it, which is a good sign.

It doesn't really matter where we placed.

Like, obviously I wanna win.

But my team did amazing.

We did the best we could have done.

I wouldn't have changed anything.

I'm so proud of all of them.

Like, everything that we've done since September has paid off to this and I'm just...

It's bittersweet that it's ending, but I'm so proud of them no matter what.

So I don't know.

I'm just happy about all of it, honestly.

- [Host] ProStart students, are you ready?

(audience cheering) Second place.

Our second place management winner is... - [Announcer] Texas!

(audience cheering) - [Host] Second place culinary winner is the great state of... - [Announcer] Delaware!

(audience cheering) I think we're all ready.

Your 2023 National ProStart Invitational management winner is the great state of... (audience chuckling) - [Announcer] Connecticut!

(all cheering) (upbeat music) - I was thinking of my family, my grandmother, of my uncles and aunts.

I'm really happy, I'm really proud.

I'm really proud of myself, I'm really proud of my team.

And I'm happy that I get to, you know, represent my culture and my family.

It's awesome, it's amazing.

- [Host] National ProStart Invitational, culinary national champion- - The great state of Michigan.

(audience cheering) - We placed 21st in the country.

We felt like we kind of let Chef down in a sense when we really didn't 'cause he was proud of us no matter what.

It's nobody's fault at the end of the day.

It's just how the competition is and how it works.

- You know, I feel that this year...

This year, you know, been an exciting year.

It's been a lot of ups and downs.

But it show that when you work together as a team, good things happen.

It's rewarding to see those student, you know?

Receive some type of scholarship And those that are not gonna continue their education, they're going out to do something in their field.

And to me, that's what being a culinary teacher is all about.

You know, you want to see that.